Visibility matters. Image matters. With so much queer and erotic imagery at our fingertips these days, it’s hard to imagine it was once impossible to find. With very little money, some black and white film, a 35mm camera and a darkroom, these pioneering photographers were paving the way, bringing us images that shouted “lesbian”.
This was a new generation of queers for whom our style was just as important as our sexuality. And our sexuality was all about that, SEX. You may look at these images and wonder,
what’s the big deal? For this selection in DIVA I’ve had to limit my choices to those that won’t irk the censors (see p60), but these photographers created more explicit material. They, and those of us who published them, were considered pornographers. We were vilified in the feminist press and barred from women’s and some gay bookstores, as they were known at the time. These photographs are special to me because they mark some moments in queer culture. These photographers made us visible and celebrated our lives, our sexuality. And they are simply not given the recognition they deserve. It’s time for a new generation to discover them.